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Iraqi Kurdistan already runs itself in much the same way an independent nation would. It has its own armed forces, and it has been selling its own oil for half the price of what the rest of Iraq charges through a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. It is estimated that the Kurdish region contains a quarter of all of Iraq's oil. That figure is likely an understatement now that the Kurds control Kirkuk — a key oil hub.

KRG, PKK make unlikely allies as they battle IS together - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
In the past three years, there have been political conflicts between the two biggest Kurdish political parties, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), led by Abdulla Ocalan, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Masoud Barzani, over ruling Rojava and sharing power between their two affiliated parties; the pro-PKK Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the pro-KDP Kurdistan Democratic Party-Syria (KDP-S).

Originally Posted by Fenton

Hillary is the only defense I or anyone else needs.

Originally Posted by apdst

Not once have I showed my dick to a woman and she thought it was creepy. In fact, in 100% of the cases, they were pretty excited about it. I don't know who you're showing your **** too.

Iraqi Kurdistan already runs itself in much the same way an independent nation would. It has its own armed forces, and it has been selling its own oil for half the price of what the rest of Iraq charges through a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. It is estimated that the Kurdish region contains a quarter of all of Iraq's oil. That figure is likely an understatement now that the Kurds control Kirkuk — a key oil hub.

KRG, PKK make unlikely allies as they battle IS together - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
In the past three years, there have been political conflicts between the two biggest Kurdish political parties, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), led by Abdulla Ocalan, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), led by Masoud Barzani, over ruling Rojava and sharing power between their two affiliated parties; the pro-PKK Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the pro-KDP Kurdistan Democratic Party-Syria (KDP-S).

I don't know about a good relationship with Turkey.....but we wouldn't have to worry about getting stabbed in the back by them. If we did the Right thing and support them.

People who are dying in Iraq and Syria right now, aren't doing so not because of US Foreign policy, but because of ISIS, which was an organization that sprung out of the Arab Spring. And despite what we can say about the situation in Iraq, it's not like we've been bombing Syria prior to the rise of ISIS so some of the blame also rests with Assad and his military's capabilities. Come to think about it, there's no real guarantee Saddam could of handled things as well had the Shia in the South decide to launch an insurrection. I *think* he could of, based on the fact that he did do a good job of handling the problem in the aftermath of the First Gulf War, but then you never really know for sure about these things.

with due respect, ISIS came directly from AQI (a l-Qaeda in Iraq ) Baghdadi was even a part of AQI/AQIS..
I support going after ISIL or Da 'ish to use the derogatory Arabic term - But I find it difficult to pin the Arab Spring on this.
The Arab Spring started the protests in Syria, which "started"the Syrian Civil War, but not Da'ish..

Anyways.. we need another Awakening by the Sunni tribes to combat ISIL,
because they are stuck between Shia militias, and the Iraqi Army ,or giving comfort to ISIL..

Syria? I don't know how to solve it, except getting Iraq straightened out first..
and that looks worse every day - except for the Peshmerga

That's ridiculous. Had the US and other Western powers not interfered with president Assad's war on terror from the beginning, he would have crushed the terrorists operating in his country early on. But regime change in Syria, as with Libya, has been a long term US foreign policy ambition. Stop being gullible and patronising. US policy in the ME is destroying it. And the ideology of radical Islamic extremism, far predates the Arab Spring. Again, don't pedal such propaganda. The leaders that have been removed/neutralised in the region contained it however, and US policy has let that genie out of the bottle. Have fun putting it back in.

Libya is a "jihadist wonderland" ( Rand Paul) and NATO ( specifically France and Obama) decided on
"Gaddafi must go" which brought the unholy tribal and regional conflicts along with the Islamist, and the current 2 governments,and the
stopping of almost all oil ...etc.. (I won't go on in a longer run on sentence)..

If you want to track Libya -I keep a thread going here Libyan civil war? -the other board I post on
...that shows the constant devolving into that "jihadist wonderland"

Honestly I don't think the western influence in Syria was that great a deal though, in that Syria was going to happen
once the 'al-Nusra types' decide to try and go after Damascus..Hillary's "Friends of Syria" & Obama's "Assad must go" stupidity aside

It's a lot more complex in how it started in Syria then Libya at least.

I don't know about a good relationship with Turkey.....but we wouldn't have to worry about getting stabbed in the back by them. If we did the Right thing and support them.

They have a better relationship than the PKK does. Turkey wants oil- cheaper the better - And yes Turkey under their current Govt is being driven down the road to a Muslim / Religious State.
The press have been hounded, locked up, charged, found guilty in show trials.
Those that disagree with the Govt line, well not pretty.
There is presently no chance Turkey will be admitted to the EU due to the Govts actions. It is a one leader state. This fellow, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan served as PM, now as President. Normally a cermonial post, but he rules from there.

https://freedomhouse.org/report/free...ss/2013/turkey
The Turkish authorities continued to use the penal code and an antiterrorism law to crack down on journalists and media outlets in 2012, leading Turkey to imprison more journalists than any other country in the world. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 49 were behind bars as of December.

with due respect, ISIS came directly from AQI (a l-Qaeda in Iraq ) Baghdadi was even a part of AQI/AQIS..
I support going after ISIL or Da 'ish to use the derogatory Arabic term - But I find it difficult to pin the Arab Spring on this.
The Arab Spring started the protests in Syria, which "started"the Syrian Civil War, but not Da'ish..

Anyways.. we need another Awakening by the Sunni tribes to combat ISIL,
because they are stuck between Shia militias, and the Iraqi Army ,or giving comfort to ISIL..

Syria? I don't know how to solve it, except getting Iraq straightened out first..
and that looks worse every day - except for the Peshmerga

With respect, it's not. Otherwise ISIS would still have ties to Al Qaeda, which of course that group has publicly disavowed all ties with the organization we now know as ISIS today. While I'm sure that many members of ISIS were former members of AQI and that part isn't debatable, the truth is that the organization at this time is directed from Syria and not from Iraq which is why this is predominantly a Syrian issue.

Also, another Awakening is out of the question. The reason that was even an option in the first place was because the US was there to serve as an intermediary between the ostracized Sunni and the ruling Shia. Without that, the Sunni have no reason to play ball with the Iraqi Government. Those who haven't already joined ISIS, are content to let the situation play out and deal with whomever wins.

With respect, it's not. Otherwise ISIS would still have ties to Al Qaeda, which of course that group has publicly disavowed all ties with the organization we now know as ISIS today. While I'm sure that many members of ISIS were former members of AQI and that part isn't debatable, the truth is that the organization at this time is directed from Syria and not from Iraq which is why this is predominantly a Syrian issue.

Also, another Awakening is out of the question. The reason that was even an option in the first place was because the US was there to serve as an intermediary between the ostracized Sunni and the ruling Shia. Without that, the Sunni have no reason to play ball with the Iraqi Government. Those who haven't already joined ISIS, are content to let the situation play out and deal with whomever wins.

with due resect back, AQI is the same as AQIS.
Islamic State is also known as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the Levant) .
The Levant is the eastern Mediterranean, which includes Lebanon - their immediate goal before any larger caliphate.

Baghdadi succeeded Zarqawi as head of AQIS - you could do an organizational flow chart if you wanted to show the secession.

A god point though on the Awakening - the US did indeed work with the tribes to turn them away from AQI.
The Iraqi army now is really just a bunch of Shia militias, with Iranian forces operating like Badr Brigades incountry, and I think Quds forces
as leadership, but i'm not sure of the relationship between Quds forces, and the Iraqis.

with due resect back, AQI is the same as AQIS.
Islamic State is also known as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the Levant) .
The Levant is the eastern Mediterranean, which includes Lebanon - their immediate goal before any larger caliphate.

Baghdadi succeeded Zarqawi as head of AQIS - you could do an organizational flow chart if you wanted to show the secession.

They stopped being AQI though the moment that AQ proper tried to end the alliance between the Nursa front and AQI. This is no more clearly demonstrated incidentally in where they chose to plant their capital, Ar-Raqqah. In some ways I wish we were still just dealing with AQI.